EXPRESSION OF EPIDERMAL GROWTH-FACTOR RECEPTORS IN HUMAN-BRAIN TUMORS

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 44  (2) , 753-760
Abstract
The expression of receptors for epidermal growth factor (EGF-R) was determined in 29 samples of brain tumors from 22 patients. Primary gliogenous tumors of various malignancy, 5 meningiomas and 2 neuroblastomas were examined. Tissue samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after the operation and stored at -70.degree. until use. Cerebral tissue samples from 11 patients who died from diseases not related to the CNS served as controls. Immunoprecipitation of functional EGF-R-kinase complexes revealed high levels of EGF-R in all brain tumors of nonneuronal origin. The level of EGF-R varied between tumors from different patients and also between specimens prelevated from different areas of the same tumor. In contrast, the levels of EGF-R from control specimens were invariably low. The biochemical properties of EGF-R in brain tumor specimens were indistinguishable from those of the well-characterized EGF-R from the A-431 cell line, derived from human epidermoid carcinomas. Human brain EGF-R displays a MW of 170,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It is phosphorylated mainly in tyrosine residues and shows a 2-dimensional phosphopeptide map similar to that obtained with the phosphorylated EGF-R from membranes of A-431 cells. These observations suggest that induction of EGF-R expression may accompany the malignant transformation of human brain cells of nonneuronal origin.

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